Narrative:

I was working the r-side eck/gam combined sectors. An A320 was near fnt westbound at 360. A B737 was near svm northwest bound. The two aircraft were in conflict. Simultaneously there were approximately 11-13 aircraft on my frequencies. ZAU attempted to hand off an A319 northeast bound at 390 with the data block indicating descending to 320. While all of this was going on; I instructed my d-side to get control of the B737 from ZOB for turns. Also I gave instruction to find out what ZAU was really doing with the A319 as FL320 was definitely not going to work. After further evaluation of my two aircraft in conflict I decided that the A320 needed to be climbed or descended in order to maintain separation from the B737. With the permission of the A320; I climbed the aircraft to 380. Later it was discovered that at that moment I entered 380 in the A320's data block it sent a utm to ZAU. I was unaware of the message. Had I seen the message; I or my d-side would have passed it to ZAU. ZAU showed 380 descending to 360 in the A320's data block where we showed 380 level. The issue of the A319 data block was verified by my d-side while I was climbing the A320. I contribute the incident to my attention to my scope; separating two aircraft that were in conflict; coordination; and frequency congestion. Ultimately; I debate the existence of the message on the uret; the utm was not observed and there fore could not be passed. Recommendation; it is uncommon that an altitude change that far away from the ZOB/ZAU border causes a utm. Also it was a coincidence that the A319's data block was incorrect coming from ZAU; prompting this investigation. The ZAU controller thought there was a glitch happening with that automation. My eyes and scan are not attuned to looking for utm messages when changing altitudes entering ZAU airspace as they are when doing the same thing with toronto center's airspace; faulty automation is known about ZOB and zyz.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZOB Controller described a developing conflict event when automation messages concerning altitude between ZOB and ZAU apparently went unnoticed.

Narrative: I was working the R-Side ECK/GAM combined sectors. An A320 was near FNT westbound at 360. A B737 was near SVM northwest bound. The two aircraft were in conflict. Simultaneously there were approximately 11-13 aircraft on my frequencies. ZAU attempted to hand off an A319 northeast bound at 390 with the Data Block indicating descending to 320. While all of this was going on; I instructed my D-Side to get control of the B737 from ZOB for turns. Also I gave instruction to find out what ZAU was really doing with the A319 as FL320 was definitely not going to work. After further evaluation of my two aircraft in conflict I decided that the A320 needed to be climbed or descended in order to maintain separation from the B737. With the permission of the A320; I climbed the aircraft to 380. Later it was discovered that at that moment I entered 380 in the A320's Data Block it sent a UTM to ZAU. I was unaware of the message. Had I seen the message; I or my D-Side would have passed it to ZAU. ZAU showed 380 descending to 360 in the A320's Data Block where we showed 380 level. The issue of the A319 Data Block was verified by my D-Side while I was climbing the A320. I contribute the incident to my attention to my scope; separating two aircraft that were in conflict; coordination; and frequency congestion. Ultimately; I debate the existence of the message on the URET; the UTM was not observed and there fore could not be passed. Recommendation; it is uncommon that an altitude change that far away from the ZOB/ZAU border causes a UTM. Also it was a coincidence that the A319's Data Block was incorrect coming from ZAU; prompting this investigation. The ZAU Controller thought there was a glitch happening with that automation. My eyes and scan are not attuned to looking for UTM messages when changing altitudes entering ZAU airspace as they are when doing the same thing with Toronto Center's airspace; faulty automation is known about ZOB and ZYZ.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.